Tuesday, December 13, 2011

According to the Washington Post and Virginia Tech, the
ACC-runner up is struggling to sell out its Sugar Bowl allotment of 17,500
tickets.

On Monday morning, Virginia Tech confirmed it had sold 9,337
tickets so far and announced a proxy program under which fans who don’t plan on
going to New Orleans could buy tickets that would then be donated to military
personnel and New Orleans charity organizations.

The Hokies have had issues selling bowl tickets during their
past two Orange Bowl trips as fans have flocked to secondary markets such as
StubHub for cheaper, and often better, seats. In 2008, the Hokies sold just
more than 3,300 tickets for their Orange Bowl matchup with Cincinnati. Last
season, Virginia Tech sold upwards of 6,500 tickets for its bowl game against
Stanford.

But Virginia Tech’s ability to sell out its ticket allotment
has come into the spotlight this year since the Sugar Bowl made a controversial
choice, selecting the Hokies over Boise State and Kansas State largely because
of their track record for traveling to bowl games. The announcement detailing
Virginia Tech’s proxy ticket program asked fans to donate tickets as a way to
maintain the school’s “reputation of being a football program that enjoys a
strong following to bowl games.”

On the athletic department’s weekly radio show, Tech Talk
Live, athletic director Jim Weaver said the school had sold more than 9,500
tickets as of Monday night. He conceded that the secondary market was making
the sale of tickets more difficult — the lowest face value of a Sugar Bowl
ticket the school can sell is $120, but tickets were going for as low as $50 on
StubHub on Tuesday morning.

Conversely, It only took four days for N.C. State to sell
its entire ticket allotment of 12,500 for the Belk Bowl in Charlotte. As of
Monday morning, more than 17,500 tickets had been sold through the school with
that number continuing to rise.

On Dec. 8, Wolfpack officials requested a block of 4,000
additional tickets from the bowl to fulfill orders placed in the first four
days since the bowl pairings were announced. By late Sunday, the State
athletics department again contacted the bowl to secure additional seats to
accommodate fans ordering before the priority deadline.

Total sales for the Dec. 27th game have now eclipsed 53,000
with N.C. State fans purchasing approximately 24,000 tickets. State will hold
two open practices this weekend in preparation for the game against Louisville.

WHERE IN THE WORLD...?

The way it is...

The way it was...

TAH DAMN GOOD CAUSE OF THE MONTH

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